Lara Schnitger’s Suffragette City at Frieze

Lara Schnitger’s Suffragette City is a protest/procession in which volunteers carry hand-crafted banners and ornate textiles fastened to wooden sticks. This stylized political event moves around Frieze in four timed performances, with the last one scheduled for Saturday at 3pm. Thursday’s, photographed her, included around a dozen individuals, most of them women, either clothed in navy-blue mechanics’ jumpsuits or black floor length gowns with lace decolletages and stripes extending from shoulder to hip like a sash. One participant brandished, rather like a placard, bondage-inspired lingerie stretched taught over an oval disk and attached to an armature with a long handle. Another wore a sculpture on her back made of plaid ribbon that had been woven into a sort of oversized basket and fitted to the arm straps of a baby-carrier. Bringing up the rear was a large pink and black illustrated banner held up high, the words “love your boob” stenciled over an image of three women dressed as sexy cats. The imagery referenced the hand-knit pussy hats of the Women’s March on Washington in January 2017. Anton Kern Gallery has a booth with Schnitger’s artworks rested against walls where they look less like ornamentation and more like the sculptures they are.